*Lesson # 1*
* causalities*
*motion*
*loss*
*they came with her*
*expression*
*texture*
*yard dogs*
*muscular development*
*perfection*
*dots*
*pushing away the earth*
*this new thing*
*wake up*
*heart*
*men throw things*
*conclusions*
lesson #1
Let this be a lesson to you.
Let this be a lesson
to all of you.
Pause...
You could you know,
(only if you wanted to of course),
substitute the word "healing"
for the word "lesson".
But only if you wanted to of course.
Anything else would be just some sort
of coercion.
And you wouldn't want that,
now would you?
Anyway...
there was a time
when all that really mattered was what
was learned, not
the changes went thru while learning it.
With the advent of healing however,
all that's changed.
Now,
The Process of Learning
is as important as
the thing learned.
causalities
Why have babies become icons for
beauty?
Just look at one -
its soft, rosy skin,
its trust in you and
its absolute joy.
Now take a good, long look
at the hands holding it.
Chances are
that they're rougher,
more defined, and maybe
with a scar or two.
and chances are that they have
much tenderness.
motion
The boat rocks gently on the water.
The road heaves with a sigh.
Those leaves rustle in the breeze.
The bridge sways in the wind.
The ballerina pirouettes.
Those buildings are on alert.
The cowboy dusts himself off.
Those desks are busy.
The teacher quickly looks over her
shoulder.
Each movement is like me
talking to myself.
loss
Look,
everybody's lost something.
Loss is a rotten part of life, but
there it is,
there's no gettin' 'round it.
Nothing said can take away the pain.
What you're left with however,
is a new way of lookin' at things.
Now I know that that is not
considered by many
to be advantageous.
But it sure as hell beats being a Victim.
they came with her
It's not just that which we have
which we can loose,
but that which we don't have too,
like:
the authority
she came with,
the quickness of wit
she brought,
the grace of attention
she came with and
the elegance
she brought,
the intelligence
she came with,
and the good humor
she brought.
I lost all of that,
because it came with her.
I thought I knew it all,
all that there was to know about loss,
but I guess I didn't know it intimately
enough,
'till I met her.
As corny as that sounds,
it's true.
expression
The world is chock-full of manners of
expression.
Too bad that those manners
seldom have any.
Imagine if you will,
a blue sky all the time.
Even that
could get a little boring.
You'd display your boredom in one of the
many
manners of expression
now available to you.
texture
Whenever I take a breath she's there.
No matter where I go or what I do,
she's there too.
It's getting to be a little redundant
this "No matter where I go" shit.
I wish that for once,
you'd just see it from where I sit.
You've got all this power and glory
and majesty and stuff,
and I've got nothin'.
Sure! Sure!
I've got it all -
SO WHAT!?
I don't want it all!
I just want her!
You made me love her,
now make her love me.
yard dogs
Having an idea about how
the end result will be,
often blinds me
to the most basic and formative curves
in the path ahead.
Forces me to develop new ways of doing
old things.
All along this new way, it's littered
with loads of personality,
loads of dreams, loads of trash,
that once held the wide-eyed looks
of the other yard dogs.
Fascination, salivation, satiation.
We yard dogs have a yummy diet,
provided we don't mind
a few pink dogbones thrown in.
It takes food to make energy,
food to make thought,
food to make feelings.
Most yard dogs know when to value food
and when
to take shelter.
muscular development
Muscular development demands obstacles
to work against,
without which nothing much happens.
There are those on this planet however,
for whom muscular development
is too cumbersome a concept
bend and stretch.
Instead,
they dance and reorganize muscles
already developed.
They hear only one kind of music.
Thankfully for us however,
that every one of their celebrations
demanded some obstacle for them
to overcome.
perfection
I'm sorry but,
everybody's got their own idea of
perfection,
and I am certainly not one to go and fuck
with it.
If you want to save the environment - fine.
start that
by saving your wife and kids
from the junk that you feel about them.
If you want to save humanity - fine.
start that
by learning about the jerk next door
who leaves his trash cans out.
What's the big deal?
Want a perfect world?
start that.
dots
Some of us are blessed with
the ability "to follow the dots",
knowing full well,
that the scribbles we make today,
will be organized into lovely pictures
tomorrow,
by mom.
Some of us weren't so lucky.
Some of us didn't have moms.
Having one
didn't ensure making pretty pictures.
but at least there was something for us
to struggle against.
Having something to struggle against only
ensured
muscular development,
not exactly which
group of muscles got developed.
Know this:
Making lovely pictures is
an entirely personal event,
but having a choice is fundamental
to the process.
pushing away the earth
When I was a child,
I knew one thing -
Things Fall Down.
Everything.
Including me.
If things didn't fall down,
I'd be in Outer Space
and where'd be the value be in that?
I mean really?!
As I get older tho,
more things get added, but
how could I forget that first thing?
How could I!?
All around me were people who had gotten over this
"always falling down" thing?
It pissed me off.
If they could - I could.
PERIOD.
Now,
that stage of development
is affectionately called Toddlerhood.
(we romanticize about it -
we speculate about it)
As I get older,
I've become a major problem,
with problem behavior.
My behavior didn't change however,
I did.
I got language.
I can verbally complain,
whereas before
all I could do was cry.
this new thing
There's a great deal of wasted
experience
and misspent energy
on every new effort.
We humans have this nasty habit
of comparing this new thing
with the old.
Way in the back,
back in the dark cave of comparison.
there lives a squadron of blood sucking
bats,
ready to swarm on any new,
fat thing.
Nasty habits make for fat humans
and
fat bats.
wake up
Now I suppose you'll want to know
"what from?".
I also suppose
you'll want to know what my answer is.
Each line of each poem should be
dependent
upon context for meaning.
Meaning itself is tricky.
Titling is nothing more than a clue!
Clueing is nothing more than calling a
thing a name.
Titles and names are Interpretations
and both may or may not
lead to understanding or blank stares.
Either way
the god of communication is ablated.
On your way back down from the
altar,
on your way back down,
you might want to rid your hands of
those
flowery meanings
so that you can now stoop
to tie your shoe.
Waking-up needs sleeping to happen.
Both are words and both
are interpretations.
heart
We've all got one.
It's what we do with it
that counts.
We all know what an onion looks
like.
It's layered.
Exposing its heart makes us tear-up.
Tearing-up sometimes clears our eyes of our secrets,
secrets that once camouflaged
how we saw ourselves.
Camouflage hides things,
but some things should not be hidden.
men throw things
I get so annoyed sometimes
when somebody subjects me
and my behavior
to their often limited interpretations.
Now, don't get me wrong.
I know I'm not perfect,
but hey!,
I'm in the game too.
It's first and seven.
(a "passing" game)
There's a group of people,
comin' at me
with ugly looks on their faces.
In the huddle - I'd called a play and
with a series of bone-jarring hits,
and fakes
they managed to clear the way
for a pass.
They'd made it possible for me
to throw the damn thing.
So I did.
conclusions
The breath of fresh air that is
that new being,
catches us breathing the stale air
of what we expected.
Everything they do is unexpected.